This is pushing the review queue right up (over 70 and over 90 at different points today) and I am not sure this is of much value -- I would much rather see less focused edits that are more substantial.

I wonder if they are just trying to "power through" and get their 1K rep for suggested edits...it certainly doesn't look like behavior that should be encouraged.
–
jadarnel27Dec 19 '11 at 20:07

3

That user has been a member for 2 days and already has an archaeologist badge! WTF?!? It took me months to earn Strunk & White
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Andrew BarberDec 19 '11 at 20:08

23

Is there a cap on how many proposed edits such users can do per-day? Since our review votes are capped, I think there should be, if not.
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Andrew BarberDec 19 '11 at 20:16

9

So you can change one letter in the title, but you have to change 6 letters in the body of a question if you lack edit privileges? Something seems very wrong about that.
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ToomaiDec 19 '11 at 20:29

9

I think correcting misspellings in titles for questions benefits the site as a whole, but maybe the person that discovered it should propose a massive edit here in meta instead of doing it him/herself.
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MarceloDec 19 '11 at 21:33

Still going... suggested edits 1692911 through 1692939 are more of the same.
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Josh CaswellDec 20 '11 at 0:40

21

And now I'm out of votes. Why on earth am I vote-limited if edit suggestions aren't?
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Josh CaswellDec 20 '11 at 0:45

3 Answers
3

You're not going to like this answer, but I approved every one of his suggested edits (that were in the queue) except four, where someone got to them first and declined them. On those four, I went ahead and made the requested spelling changes.

How is correcting spelling errors not making the internet better? Do you really want to have this discussion the next time someone throws a txtspk question at you?

It might interest you to know that the user rep-capped long before he was done making suggestions. The system works.

Seriously, there are far more serious things users can do to the site than fix a bunch of spelling errors. The horror.

I approve this answer. I've been making edit suggestions to correct minor spelling and grammar errors on one of the betas I am in and every one of them got approved by the SE employees.
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NullUserException อ_อDec 20 '11 at 3:44

5

But what if someone searches for the same problem using the same misspelling? They'll be left high and dry; the horror! ;)
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Awesome PoodlesDec 20 '11 at 3:44

7

I agree with Robert here - the user is trying to help. It's not a big deal, and everyone should stop jumping on him for doing something beneficial.
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nhinkleDec 20 '11 at 3:46

2

I can see this on keywords maybe, but on silly words such as "accommodation" which virtually no one would search for anyways, no way. The words he was changing don't really affect the search and are common misspellings that most people wouldn't even notice. I still don't believe most of them constitute a full edit. A good search would still match the rest of the words and just not the misspelled one.
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animusonDec 20 '11 at 3:49

9

@animuson Can you tell me exactly how this (correcting misspellings) makes SO worse?
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NullUserException อ_อDec 20 '11 at 3:52

1

@NullUserExceptionอ_อ: It doesn't make it worse, but it is not substantive as an edit. Isn't that the reason for rejecting as too minor? The only thing correcting "accommodation" does is fix one misspelling on SO.
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animusonDec 20 '11 at 3:53

1

@animuson Who said I agree with that definition of "too minor"? It's certainly not doing the site any harm, so what's the problem here?
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NullUserException อ_อDec 20 '11 at 3:55

10

It might be too minor if they're changing things that aren't in need of changing, but if he's changing something that's wrong and making it right, that's hardly a bad thing.
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nhinkleDec 20 '11 at 3:59

2

@NullUserExceptionอ_อ: I just said it doesn't do any harm, but it doesn't really do any good either. So we fixed a misspelling that barely anyone notices anyways and probably 50% of people also make.
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animusonDec 20 '11 at 4:00

10

@animuson Then let's do them a favor and teach them how to spell words correctly. I stand by my assertion that any grammar/spelling corrections are welcome. It makes the site look more professional.
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NullUserException อ_อDec 20 '11 at 4:03

12

When I am in "Review mode" and see an edit like this, I typically dive in and clean up the 23 other things that should have been fixed. So, that's 2 edits to the post by 2 new users. The harm is that the post is closer to CW conversion -- perhaps undeservedly so. This is one more reason why I think we need the "Reject and Improve" feature.
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Awesome PoodlesDec 20 '11 at 4:05

Jeff and waffles have both expressed the opinion that such edits should be rejected.
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Josh CaswellDec 20 '11 at 6:24

9

I think that if the behavior is toxic to the community of people that regularly make more substantial edits, it should be discouraged. What I don't know how to do is entice people to take more ownership in the posts they edit, so that upon hitting 'save', the post no longer requires editing.
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Tim Post♦Dec 20 '11 at 7:18

7

@jwiscarson: A lot of the comments here seem to suggest that, if a post is to be edited, the editor must take responsibility for cleanup of the entire post. I'm not sure that's fair. There are plenty of other able-bodied people that can pitch in.
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Robert HarveyDec 20 '11 at 21:07

This guy has done a search for the words "framwork" and "expresion" in titles of posts and is now on a crusade to correct them all. Either he is an English major with a concentration in Spelling, or he is trying to crank up his rep +2 at a time, or he is on a crusade for the Copy Editor badge. In any case, he must be stopped!

He has a total of 10 points from answers, none from questions. All of his rep (238 last time I looked) is from edits.

I somehow keep ending up reading this page again and again each time I find a user with hundreds of rep points gained by editing lower case "I"s and uncapitalized first words.
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Sergiu ParaschivJun 12 '14 at 13:15

Searching for "framework" is the same as searching for "framwork". Any decent search engine won't mind.
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Sergiu ParaschivJun 12 '14 at 13:16